"In my mind, they're dead for the session," Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, said last week. "It never has been a done deal. The votes we have had have barely passed every time. There still is about half the chamber against this issue. It's an uphill battle, no matter what."

But team supporters, primarily Miami-Dade County senators, aren't conceding yet.

"There are high-level negotiations going on," said Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah, a sponsor of one of the Senate bills to help the team. He and Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, who also sponsored a Marlins bill, said it's difficult to predict what can happen in the final days of a legislative session, as hundreds of bills are passed and chamber leaders make a series of trade-offs to adjourn on time.

"In this process, I don't think it's over until it's over," said Diaz de la Portilla, whose district would be home to the new stadium. "I think that a lot of things happen in the last days of session that no one can possibly imagine."